Director’s Notes:
“It was becoming clear to me that as teachers, we rely too much on text and talk. We do not create rich multimedia experiences that enhance learning processes.”
This quote is from Goodman’s 2004 article, “Filmmaking and Research: An Intersection.” In this one-minute movie, I wanted to play with the contrasts between my personal life as a 6th year student of Tae Kwan Do as compared to my professional life as a teacher of a required Sophomore English class. I hoped that my opening sequence of “Tae Kwan Snow” would be visually interesting and intriguing, with a view of the “Valdez Arm” of Prince William Sound. I wanted people to ask questions as they watched this sequence. How much is this action speeded up? Why is this student practicing her “form” (palgwe 7) on a snowy trail? Is it difficult to execute those moves with heavy winter boots?
I wanted to use an extended shot to capture the focus and flow that we practice in our Tae Kwan Do school. I was on my own for the filming, so I set up the camera on a tripod and let it record the action. Due to the time constraint of a minute for the entire movie, I speeded up the “form” to 150% of normal speed. Typically, the form takes slightly less than a minute to complete. I considered doing a “voice over” for the information about the core values of our Tae Kwan Do school, then decided to use the “ticker tape” feature instead so that I wouldn’t interrupt the Native flute music. The musician, Evren Ozan, is a friend of mine—an amazing teenager who composed and performed this piece, “The Climb” when he was 15 years old. He produced 3 CDs before his 15th birthday: Images of Winter (2001), As Things Could Be (2003), and Alluvia (2006). (see http://ozanmusic.com/ for more details on Evren’s musical career.) I admire Evren’s dedication and whole-hearted immersion to his musical studies. When I was a coordinator for home school program in Prince William Sound, I wrote grants in 2005 and 2008 to allow Evren to share his music with students in Valdez and Anchorage, Alaska.
The Tae Kwan Do practice and Evren’s music speak to the core values of our TKD school: courtesy, integrity, respect, self-control, indominable spirit, and perseverance. In contrast, my sophomore English classroom has been a challenge for many reasons, including the fact that our high school does not have a school-wide sense of core values and respect for learning. I have been teaching for 15 years, yet this is my first year in this role as a teacher of a required English class. In my teaching experiences up to this point, I have worked mostly with motivated, enthusiastic students, ranging from kindergarteners, gifted/talented students and home schooling families. I feel like I have hit a brick wall with this group of mostly apathetic, cynical students.
In the classroom scenes, I zeroed in on 2 posters that were hung by my colleague who teaches afternoon English classes in this classroom. The “YOU” is meant to remind students to refrain from using “you” in their essays, yet it speaks to me about the students’ sense of alienation and resentment in this classroom. The “Cell Phones OFF, Brains ON, Any Questions?” is a school-wide poster that disturbs me due to the sarcasm implied in that rhetorical question. Although my colleague and I TRY to teach in a way that fosters curiosity and trust, so that students will ask interesting questions, this poster seems to be heading in the opposite direction. Clearly, students should follow the black/white rules and not even need to ask WHY they can’t use their favorite form of communication—their cell phones.
Although I have progressive ideas about education and the uses of technology in the classroom, the stress of teaching this English class for the first time has resulted in a regression to “old school” teaching: “Pay attention…don’t talk to your neighbor…sit up straight…focus….pay attention…you’ll need to know this for the test…no, you can’t use your computer now…no, you can’t listen to your music…sit up straight…don’t talk with your neighbor…pay attention…” I wanted to raise these questions that have troubled me this year: “When students are forced to take a class for their own good, can they participate willingly, with enthusiasm? When they are forced to learn for THE TEST, perform for their teachers, and not talk to each other, what happens to their spirits?” I tell my students, “Teaching is listening, learning is talking,” yet what can I do when the students put their heads down and refuse to participate….refuse to discuss ideas…..refuse to “play the game” to get good grades? In Goodman’s 2004 article about filmmaking and research, he says, ““Having the ability to state a question that excites people and captures their attention is a gift. Finding the right question to ask is more of a challenge. The
process of finding the right question also is common to filmmaking and research.”
I love watching thought-provoking documentaries because of the questions that I start to ask when I learn more about a new subject. I hope that it was effective to insert my own questions instead of just relying on the viewer asking his or her own questions. I played with asking questions as a “voice over” or through the “ticker tape” methods, but I was annoyed by both of these methods. I felt that breaking the scene and inserting a black screen with a question worked best. Another goal of presenting questions to the viewer was to evoke the feeling of being in a classroom where a teacher is asking open-ended questions (definitely biased questions, but still open-ended) and inviting you to reflect on these educational issues.
This short movie is still very rough around the edges. Next time, I'll use a tripod for all of the shots, since the shaky quality of the classroom scenes is distracting. Clearly, I need to learn how to use the zoom feature in a smooth way so that mechanical issues don’t get in the way of the story I want to tell. I was surprised to get the black/white image of the desk silhouetted against the window when I zoomed into the source of light (and escape) from the sterile classroom. There were multiple time constraints—the one-minute limit and the amount of available time in my very busy schedule. The interview with Paul Hirsch by G. Oldham made me think about the mind-boggling amount of time that is involved with editing films. I enjoyed reading about his attention to musical scores especially in the context of the movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”, since the score is such an integral part of this classic comedy. My preferred movie genre is comedy, and I have great respect for the screenwriters and directors who can make us laugh by surprising us and finding the playful, ridiculous moments in everyday life. I wish that I could have dreamed up a one-minute comedy for this film assignment, but my brain has been occupied by some heavy thoughts about education. Of course, my best days in the classroom are the days in which I joke around with the students and find ways to break through their apathy with intelligent humor. Perhaps I’ll try to film a comedy next time….
